Massachusetts Route 18

"MA 18" redirects here. MA 18 may also refer to Massachusetts's 18th congressional district.

Route 18
Route information
Maintained by MassDOT
Length:	41.59 mi (66.93 km)
Major junctions
South end:	US 6 in New Bedford
	I‑195 in New Bedford I‑495 in Middleborough US 44 / Route 28 in Middleborough Route 3 in Weymouth
North end:	Route 53 in Weymouth
Location
Counties:	Bristol, Plymouth, Norfolk
Highway system
Massachusetts State Highway System Interstate US State ← Route 17 Route 19 →

Route 18 is a south–north state highway in southeastern Massachusetts. Beginning in the city of New Bedford, it runs as a freeway for approximately 2 miles (3.2 km), continuing as a surface street until Weymouth.

Route description

Southbound entering Bridgewater

Route 18 starts as a four-lane freeway, a continuation of John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway in downtown New Bedford, at U.S. Route 6. After the intersection with I-195, Route 18 runs via surface streets parallel to Route 140 for a while, up to a connector road with Route 140 northbound. (Before its highway route was constructed, Route 140 followed County Road from Taunton until terminating at Route 18 in Freetown near the New Bedford line.) Route 18 then continues on a generally northerly direction. The highway goes through the East Freetown section of Freetown, Lakeville (with a three-mile (5 km) concurrency with Route 105 along Assawompset Pond), Middleborough, where the highway meets U.S. Route 44 and Route 28 at the Middleboro rotary just north of Interstate 495, beginning a six-mile (10 km) concurrency with Route 28 until the center of Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, Whitman, Abington, and Weymouth, ending at Route 53.

Highway improvements

A major fault of Route 18 north of Bridgewater is its intersection patterns. At all lights north of Bridgewater center, the road widens to four lanes temporarily, before and after the intersection. While this helps alleviate backups at the lights and assists vehicles turning left off of the route, it creates bottlenecks after the intersection, where the two lanes re-merge into one. To help this, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's Highway Division will be widening the section of Route 18 from Highland Place in Weymouth to Route 139 in Abington from two to four lanes. The $26 million project was originally planned to begin in 2013, but had yet to break ground as of July 2014.

Major intersections

County	Location	mi	km	Destinations	Notes
Bristol	New Bedford	0.00	0.00	JFK Memorial Highway south – Downtown New Bedford	Southern terminus
		0.00	0.00	US 6 – Dartmouth, Fairhaven	No southbound entrance; No northbound access to US 6 west
		0.30	0.48	Hillman Street	Northbound entrance only
		0.50	0.80	Purchase Street	Southbound exit only
				Weld Street	Southbound exit only
		1.1	1.8	I‑195 – Fall River, Cape Cod	Exit 15 on I-195; Northbound exit and southbound entrance
				Coggeshall Street	Northern terminus of freeway section
		4.6	7.4	Route 140 north – Taunton, Boston	Exit 6 on Route 140; Southbound exit and northbound entrance via Ashley Boulevard
				Braley Road to Route 140
	East Freetown			Mason Road to Route 140 – East Freetown
Plymouth	Lakeville	13.40	21.57	Route 105 south – Rochester	Southern terminus of concurrency with Route 105
		16.10	25.91	Route 105 north / Precinct Street – Middleboro, Plymouth	Northern terminus of concurrency with Route 105
		18.00	28.97	Route 79 – Middleboro, Fall River
	Middleborough	19.60	31.54	I‑495 to Route 24 – Cape Cod, Marlboro, Boston	Exit 5 on I-495
		20.00	32.19	US 44 / Route 28 south to I‑495 – Middleboro, Plymouth, Taunton, Marlboro	Rotary; Southern terminus of concurrency with Route 28
	Bridgewater	26.10	42.00	Route 104 west – Taunton	Southern terminus of an ellipse rotary; Southern terminus of concurrency with Route 104
		26.20	42.16	Route 28 north / Route 104 east – Kingston, West Bridgewater, Brockton	Northern terminus of an ellipse rotary; Northern terminus of concurrencies with Routes 28 and 104
	East Bridgewater	28.00	45.06	Route 106 west – West Bridgewater	Southern terminus of concurrency with Route 106
		28.2	45.4	Route 106 east	Northern terminus of concurrency with Route 106
	Whitman	32.0	51.5	Route 14 – Brockton, Hanson	Site of the Toll House Inn (birthplace of the chocolate chip cookie) northwest of here
		32.7	52.6	Route 27 – Brockton, Kingston
	Abington	34.5	55.5	Route 123 – Brockton, Hanover
		36.1	58.1	Route 139 – Holbrook, Rockland
Norfolk	Weymouth	37.7	60.7	Route 58 south – Rockland	Northern terminus of Route 58
		40.5	65.2	Route 3 – Boston, Cape Cod	Exit 16 on Route 3
		41.59	66.93	Route 53 – Braintree, Quincy, Hanover	Northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access

References

• John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway (Downtown Connector) on Bostonroads.com